Delhi’s Sultanpuri effect: PCRs freed from police station control

Over a year after police control rooms (PCRs) were merged with police districts, the Delhi Police on Monday announced the units’ disintegration with immediate effect. The decision came after police faced severe criticism for the alleged lapses on the part of PCR personnel and delayed responses in the January 1 Sultanpuri hit-and-drag case

Over a year after police control rooms (PCRs) were merged with police districts, the Delhi Police on Monday announced the units’ disintegration with immediate effect. The decision came after police faced severe criticism for the alleged lapses on the part of PCR personnel and delayed responses in the January 1 Sultanpuri hit-and-drag case.

The Delhi Police in September 2021 announced the merger of PCR vans with police districts. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

An order in this regard was issued by Delhi Police chief Sanjay Arora. The disintegration separates PCRs from the 15 police districts, nearly 17 months after the unit’s 5,219 personnel and 750 vehicles were merged with the districts.

In his order, Arora explained the objective behind the merger, how the move did not yield the desired results, and the reason for disintegration, besides a detailed date-wise schedule regarding the revamping of the PCR unit.

“An undesirable effect of the said experiment was that the old centralised emergency response (system) that was a unified system of the Delhi Police for the public what used to be overall face has now become the separate, grassroots decentralised response of 2,700 police beats, below the police station level,” the order read.

The disintegration exercise will conclude on March 29-30 with the final assessment of the revamped PCR unit. Over this period, the process of establishing PCR units by attachment of personnel, vehicles and setting up offices will take place, according to the order.

On September 1, 2021, the merger of the PCR unit’s vehicles and personnel with the police districts was announced through an official notification.

The objective of the merger “experiment”, according to Arora’s order, was to ensure better emergency call management and increased resources in police stations for taking care of investigations of cases and handling law and order situations.

On January 1, 20-year-old Anjali Kumari was hit by a car when she was returning home on her scooter in outer Delhi’s Sultanpuri. Kumari’s leg got stuck in the underside of the car, and she was dragged for nearly three hours on a stretch of over 14 kilometres, leading to her death.

The police investigation showed how despite multiple distress calls, PCR vans in the area did not respond immediately. This lapse allowed the four men in the car to drive with Anjali’s body underneath for nearly two and a half hours. Multiple CCTV footages from the stretch have also shown presence of PCR vans on the stretch on Kanjhawala Road at the time, when the four men were driving Kumari’s body stuck underneath the car.

On January 13, the Union home ministry took cognizance of the matter and directed the police to suspend personnel deployed in the police control room (PCR) vans that were patrolling the area for allegedly responding late to several distress calls made by witnesses of the accident.

Even though the merger benefitted police with regard to increased human resources, Arora said that the manpower at the police stations later returned to the pre-merger levels.

“As the increased manpower of the police stations became diminished, the benefits of merger policing (such as reduction in workload per investigation officer, increased disposal of inquest, increased rate of challenging of cases etc.) also came to their old level. A comprehensive analysis... found that the initial gains that were achieved had nothing to do with the dissolution of PCR, they were achieved only by the increase of human resources in the police,” the order read.

Through the order, Arora directed all the districts’ deputy commissioners of police to ensure that PCR vans run smoothly in their respective districts till the day disintegration is fully implemented.